MORE FAIR TRADE

Fair Trade is something most of us take for granted. but in some parts of the world children as young as six are abducted and forced to work 16-hour days in appalling conditions, without pay and with no means of escape. Beatings are commonplace. This is not "fair trade", this is slavery.

It has been estimated that nearly half the world's cocoa production is tainted by slavery at some point along the supply chain.

Now that you are aware of the situation, you can do a number of things. One of these is to ignore the facts. If you do this then you are supporting slavery. Knowledge cannot be unlearned. Another possible course of action would be to attempt to find out if your preferred chocolate bar or coffee drink is produced by suppliers that either (a) refuse to acknowledge the problem, or (b) are actively doing something about it. Most supermarkets stock fair trade alternatives. There are schemes in place in many of the offending cocoa-producing countries that are there to monitor cocoa production and ensure slavery is not an issue. It's still exploitation, but it's not slavery.

Slavery does not just happen on cocoa plantations, it exists in the production of many things. The links below will take you to websites of various organisations who are actively trying to stamp out this practice, which is more prevalent now than ever before. The worst thing you can do is stop buying these products altogether. Look at the websites below and seek out the lists of products that carry the FAIR TRADE mark, the RUGMARK or similar marks.

The point is not up for discussion. All mail to mft.co.uk is automatically bounced. Please contact the organisations below directly for more information.

Make Trade Fair (Oxfam)
Anti-Slavery International
The Fair Trade Foundation
Rugmark (Europe)
Rugmark (USA)
Channel4 slavery documentary site (Broken link - lobby them to reinstate it)